It is often necessary to be able to regulate the flow of a fluid so that when the demand for the fluid is high in one area, the flow to a second area can be reduced or stopped until the high demand ceases. An example of this is use of a single heat source to heat water for domestic household use such as the hot water faucets and showers, and the same hot water source to heat the house, thereby eliminating the waste of energy occurring when separate heat sources are employed. In order to effectively provide hot water for domestic use when there is a simultaneous demand for hot water and for heat, assuming domestic use is of a higher priority, the flow of hot water must be detected and regulated so as to provide sufficient hot water to the faucets, reducing the supply to the source of heat for the house as necessary. The present invention accomplishes this by employing a fluid flow rate detector which controls an electric switch in a circuit which regulates the water flow.
In the past, it has been known to utilize various flow actuated control devices to adjust the flow of fluid. Exemplary devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,963,563 to Patterson, U S. Pat. No. 4,313,111 to Anderson and U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,184 to Hughes. However, these systems suffer from the limitation that the flow of fluid is substantially impeded when the fluid is passing through the control device.
With respect to systems providing a source of hot water and a source of heat from a single source, an exemplary system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,907 to Sweat, Jr. However, the system does not utilize a fluid flow rate detection device to regulate the flow of fluid to the hot water faucets or sinks and to the air heating system.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a fluid flow rate detector for controlling an electric switch in a circuit for regulating fluid flow.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a heating system providing a source of hot water to a water sink and to a source of heat which utilizes a fluid flow detector for controlling an electric switch of a circuit which regulates fluid flow to the water sink and to the source of heat. These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be particularly identified below.